Irvin tells Bryant to honor No. 88 for Pearson

The subject of the conversation? The responsibilty that comes with wearing the Cowboys uniform in general and No. 88 in particular.

“I talked to him about the responsibility of wearing Drew Pearson’s number and that a lot of people have worn that Cowboy helmet before him and the honor it is to wear a Cowboy uniform and that he plays for everybody that has played before him and for everybody that is going to play after him,” Irvin said. “I just wanted to give him a sense of the enormity of it all. And I think he understands that. And he remains humble and that’s a good sign.”

Irvin said he’s always considered No. 88 to belong to Pearson, who was Roger Staubach’s favorite receiver in the 1970s.

“When I first got here…I was excited and honored that they would honor me with Drew Pearson’s number,” Irvin said. “But I was also worried and anxious that I would uphold what Drew had started with No. 88. It’s not my number. It really is Drew’s. It was passed on to me and for me I took it as a place of honor, and hopefully (Bryant) understands that. It’s Drew Pearson’s number. Drew gave it to me and said, ‘Michael, go do better things with it.’ And I tell Bryant, ‘Go do better things with it.’ And God bless him.”

Irvin was asked if he thinks Bryant can improve on No. 88.

“As parents, and I have my boys out here, I think we all are stuck with the conundrum of saying, ‘Kid, we want you to appreciate what we’ve done. We want you to appreciate all the work we did and everything,’ ” Irvin said. “But you also want your ceiling to be their floor. You know what I mean? I want you to appreciate the work I put in, but make my ceiling, your floor. My three Super Bowl rings, that’s his floor and he moves from there. That would be great. A lot of pressure and everything and all of that, but that would be great. That’s what I hope for. That’s what Drew wanted me to do – go win more Super Bowls. We were fortunate to do that. And I want him to go win more Super Bowls.”